


May I Have This Dance?

by firstdegreefangirl



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff, Mild Angst, Taylor Swift - Freeform, post Season 1 finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 12:11:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4606314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstdegreefangirl/pseuds/firstdegreefangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What I imagine could have taken place after the ballroom dancing competition in the season one finale. Mostly fluff with about 30 seconds of mild angst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	May I Have This Dance?

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is terribly overdue, and for that I apologize, but I found and finished it today. Here, in all it's unbetaed glory, is the first fanfic I ever wrote.
> 
> I don't own Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Taylor Swift. Just my ideas.
> 
> This picks up after the dancing scene in the finale - but Jake never went under and the whole Wint thing basically doesn’t exist. Let’s not go into how they never would have been at the competition, because it makes for some cute fluff.

“You don’t have to say ‘dance’ every time you make a step.”

 “Good call.”

“Hey, do you want me to _actually_ show you how to do this so you don’t hurt yourself, and possibly others?”

“Yes.” Amy gasps and Jake feels her body tense. Just as they’re getting into the swing of things - literally - Holt comes up and tells them they have to do something, soon.

Amy’s eyes glimmer, the way they always do when she gets an idea. She breaks away from Jake and starts limping badly (thank God she didn’t want to be an actress,) shouting something about her ankle. Jake sneaks out and gets the evidence they needed against one of NYC’s biggest drug dealers.

After the arrest is done, Holt takes the perp back to the precinct, leaving Jake and Amy to tie down the loose ends.

“Hey, Ames?”

“Yeah?”

“Earlier? When I offered to teach you to dance?”

“Oh, yeah. That was a really great detail to add to your character: nice, helpful, charming guy. Don’t worry, I won’t hold you to it.”

“See, here’s the thing; that wasn’t my character. Seriously, everyone needs to know how to dance. For, you know, weddings and stuff.”

“Like undercover ops?” She chuckles.

“Yeah. Look, Saturday at my place. Warning: if you don’t show up, I _will_ kidnap you.”

“Alright. Eight o’clock okay?” When Jake nods, she takes the conversation as over and finishes the case

* * *

**Saturday Morning**

Amy stands outside Jake’s door, just as she has been for the last seven minutes. _7:58._ Two more minutes. Two more minutes, then she can knock on the door and try to keep her cool all day. After all, it’s considered totally inappropriate to jump your dance teacher. And she was voted “most appropriate” in high school.

_7:59._ Amy feels her pulse speed up.

At exactly 8:00, Amy raises her fist to knock. At precisely that second, Jake opened the door, startling them both.

“Jake- um- I just I- I didn’t want to be late. But then I didn’t want to be early, so, I mean, it’s eight now-”

“Amy, I know you’ve been waiting here. I would’ve opened the door, but I kinda didn’t have pants on. You ready to dance?”

“Um… I guess…”

Jake steps aside and waves her into his apartment. She notices that he’s moved all the furniture to the edges of the room to provide them the most room possible.

He toed off his sneakers and gestured for her to do the same. As she did, he explained “this way it’ll hurt less when you step on my feet.”

“That’s a good point.”

“Alright, let’s get started. Your right hand goes -here.” He places it on his shoulder. “And my left hand goes -here.” His hand settles warmly on her hip and she thinks she quite likes the feeling of it. “Then these go -here.” He reaches for her free hand and extends them do their sides. “Now, just follow my lead. We’ll start slow; step forward with your left food, then your right. Then step back left, back right.” He guides her slowly through a few steps. No one gets their feet squished, so all in all, Amy considers it a success.

“Okay. That’s good. Now try to relax a little. You’re not a robot.” He chuckles awkwardly and she hopes he can’t see _why_ she’s so tense. Because it may or may not be the result of how warm and firm her hand is on her side, but that he’s not squeezing it too hard. They step together for a few more moments before Jake lets her go.

“You’re catching on. Wanna try something a little more?” when her eyes widen, Jake clarifies, “I’m just gonna turn some music on. This makes it a little harder, but all you’ve really gotta do is the forward-forward-back-back, just as fast as the music. We’ll start slow.” Jake steps over and fiddles with a stereo. Soon, the room is filled with the sounds of gentle classical music. He moves back toward her and puts his hand back on her hip. As the music plays and they start dancing again, Jake tugs her a little closer.

“Let’s try something less likely to injure someone with our arms.” He drops her hand and puts his now free hand on her other hip. Not sure what to do, Amy just leaves her arm outstretched. Jake chuckles “Put it on my shoulder.” When she does, he pulls her in again. “If your elbows get sore, link your hands behind my head.” Letting the music fill the room, Jake slowly expands their forward-back movement, adding some left-right steps in.

Like she is in most other aspects of her life, Amy is a remarkably fast learner when it comes to dancing. Before long, she and Jake are spinning around his living room, chatting amicably.

“I’m better at this than I thought I would be,” Amy remarks.

“‘Better at this than I thought I would be!’ Title of your sex tape!” Jake chortles, causing her to quite deliberately step on his foot. “What, was that supposed to hurt? Because it didn’t. I’m just that much better than you, Santiago.”

“It was intended to prove a point. And I think it did, quite clearly. You’re the only person here who finds your ‘sex tape’ jokes funny.”

“C’mon Ames, I tease because I love! Really, you should be concerned if I ever _stop_ making fun of you. Anyway, we both know you secretly love it.”

“You _tease_ because you _love_?”

“Yeah. If I don’t like you, I don’t take enough time out of my day to put any effort into teasing you. Besides, we’d gone 15 minutes without a toe mutilation. The new lack of perfection hurts you more than it hurts me. Now, let’s dance.”

With that, Jake pulls Amy closer to him, minimizing the space between them.

“Y’know, this isn’t the worst Saturday I’ve ever had.” Jake says out of nowhere, after several moments of silence.

“Yeah? Me neither. And I feel more equipped to go to weddings now.”

“Well that was the goal here. Wanna try something more fun?”

“More fun than walking circles around your living room? I didn’t know such an activity existed.”

“Fine then. We’ll just do this,” Jake says, already leading them over to the stereo, where he lets her go. “Now turn around. It’s a surprise.”

“Are you sure I should trust you?” Amy says, even as she turns away from Jake.

Suddenly, the room fills with light guitar as Jake steps back toward Amy.

 

_There I was again tonight_

_Forcing laughter, faking smiles_

_Same old tired, lonely place_

 

“Detective Santiago, may I have this dance?” he asks, bowing deeply before her.

 

_Walls of insecurity_

_Shifting eyes and vacancy_

_Vanished when I saw your face_

 

“You may,” Amy replies, taking his outstretched hand. She settles her hands on his shoulders, but he removes one and holds it in his own. “I thought we were past this,”

“For just swaying around, yeah. But there’s all kinds of other tricks we can do. 

“Tricks?” Amy looks just as nervous as she sounds, and Jake feels her stiffen under his touch.

“Nothing too fancy, Ames. Just trust me, and I promise you’ll be fine.”

 

_This night is sparkling_

_Don’t you let it go_

_I’m wonderstruck_

_Blushing all the way home_

_I’ll spend forever_

_Wondering if you knew_

 

“Ready? You’re gonna spin out and then back into me.”

 

_I was Enchanted to meet you_

 

Amy twirls against Jake’s side and stays there. Soon, Jake realizes, she’s giggling uncontrollably. 

“So you liked that?”

“I did it! Holy shit! I did it!”

“That you did.” Jake chuckles in reply. He’s beginning to realize that her energy is infectious. They just stand there, laughing, wrapped up in each other’s arms.

The sound is so genuine that it makes Amy blurt, “God, I love you!

Suddenly, neither of them is laughing anymore.

“Amy,” Jake breathes after a long moment of stunned silence.

“Jake.”

“Amy, I told you not to fall in love with me. Weren’t you listening?”

“Jake,” She sounds much less certain now. “What’s going on?”

“Amy, don’t you get it? I can’t ‘do’ this whole relationship thing. You can’t be in love with me because it’ll ruin everything we have if you are. Every girlfriend I’ve had, ever since Jenny Gildenhorn, they’ve all dumped me. And, God,” Jake runs his hands through his hair; Amy stays leaned against his torso. He doesn’t even try to move her. “I just- I don’t think I could live anymore if I lost you, Ames.”

At that, she turns around, leaving them pressed chest to chest. She rolls up onto her toes and presses a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth.

“Jake. You’re not gonna lose me; because I’m not gonna leave. I couldn’t leave you. I couldn’t lose you.”

Jake offered her a crooked half-smile, and his left hand.

“Amy, may I have this dance?”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Admittedly, I did borrow the idea for the whole "I told you not to fall in love with me" thing from rubycaspar's "The Payoff" on ff.net. Great fic, by the way, if you haven't read it yet.


End file.
